tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55938172024-03-13T22:59:48.838-04:00Across the MetaverseReflections, ramblings and rants about higher ed, especially online virtual environments, in my LCC classes.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-17029776705085009582024-01-10T10:40:00.001-05:002024-01-10T21:35:32.960-05:00The Social Mediatization of Higher Ed and AIThe new normalSince the supposed end of the pandemic (I say this as COVID cases are rising in our state and a WHO leader says we're still pandemicing), workplaces nationwide have been grappling with what is the new normal--mostly face to face (f2f) before 2020, mostly online for many professions through 2021, and now--hybrid with some f2f, some online.Many companies and institutions as we know Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-82978391470778790112020-09-09T15:35:00.000-04:002020-09-09T15:35:09.644-04:00Whose space are we in? This fall semester, Lansing Community College is being led wisely by upper administration to operate primarily online, with only a handful of classes meeting face to face. So we aren't facing the situations where many colleges jump into class as usual, even with face masks, and immediately have to shut it down when Covid-19 cases balloon.So all of my classes are online. The college Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-8527465082111925862020-05-21T13:03:00.001-04:002020-08-25T12:35:47.774-04:00Learning Online during a Pandemic
Pandemic semester scramble
Spring semester 2020 is a wrap, and for us all, it was a strange one, to put it mildly. My usual teaching load is two online classes, and two face to face (f2f) or hybrid classes. So when the administration at Lansing Community College moved us all to online after spring break, it wasn't near the transition for me that it was for others who had never taught online. Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-76980728514883757282018-04-09T13:38:00.001-04:002021-09-27T16:51:45.785-04:00Are Writing Centers Remedial?
I've never considered the Chronicle of Higher Education as a click-bait publication. Maybe I'm naive. I always thought of it as a reputable periodical serving faculty and administration of colleges and universities nationwide.
This February, I began to rethink its approach when it published an article "What's Wrong with the Writing Center?" basically an interview of Lori Salem about her Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-49121148544800697982018-02-03T17:25:00.000-05:002019-04-05T18:15:56.689-04:00High Impact Practices in an online class
Inside Higher Ed published an article recently entitled "Making an Impact in Online Courses," a report on a session at the annual Association of American Colleges and Universities conference at Washington, D.C. (a professional organization who advocates for the inclusion of liberal arts in all aspects of higher education).
The focus was on the incorporation of high-impact practices, an AAC&Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-83713215673064084262016-03-13T19:13:00.001-04:002016-03-13T19:13:15.051-04:00Some notes on the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conferenceI haven't attended the VWBPE conference in a couple years (or at least not much beyond a session or two), but since this year it fell on my spring break, I decided that I should do so.
I went to a number of excellent sessions, some in Second Life and some in the Opensim grid Avacon. I also hadn't spent much time in an opensim in several years, and I have to say it's much improved, though still aDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-54614732606954456632015-06-09T11:49:00.000-04:002015-06-09T11:49:45.950-04:00Virtual Worlds 2.0: High Fidelity and Magic LeapThis morning I watched a couple videos from the MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference that took place on June 1-2 in San Francisco. The first one was with Philip Rosedale--the founder of Second Life--talking about his new-virtual world company High Fidelity: The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality | EmTech Digital 2015 | MIT Technology Review.
This new version of a virtual Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-43123643053997070642015-03-15T12:50:00.001-04:002015-03-15T12:53:02.857-04:00New mesh avatars(Written in September 2014, edited/pictures added March 2015)
The semester has just begun, and I'm pleasantly surprised with the gratitude I've been seeing with students, unsolicited. I get thank yous from students, sometimes at the end of semesters, though, there have been years when such is not expressed.
But this very first week, I've had several online students thank me for the checklists IDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-5067370702984288792013-01-03T16:16:00.001-05:002013-01-03T16:16:18.305-05:00Face-to-face immersion(Note: this blog posting started over a month ago, so it's really a middle-of-the-semester reflection rather than an end of semester wrap up. I expect to do such a posting soon.)
A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in an English Department distance learning committee meeting, where my chair, Rick Reagan, said something that really caught my attention: "Many students just have to realize that Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-55052552709069210142012-09-26T15:45:00.000-04:002012-09-26T15:47:56.871-04:00Summer author interview and the fall semester begins
This summer I published a story cycle of urban fantasy/magical realism, the Annunciation of Jack, which you can purchase on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Also, I was interviewed by Alexander Zoltai, who manages events at Book Island in Second Life. Last spring semester, some of my creative writing students attended his book chat and he was intrigued with the work I was doing with studentsDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-63249982121170341892012-08-27T14:05:00.000-04:002012-08-27T17:19:40.840-04:00Virtual career fair?I just ran across this article from the Lansing State Journal about a virtual career fair: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20120827/BUSINESS/308270023/Michigan-online-virtual-career-fair-set-Sept-26?odyssey=nav%7Chead&nclick_check=1
What caught my eye was this passage: "On Sept. 26, Pure Michigan Talent Connect will host the MiVirtualCareerFair, an online event where job Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-24339941761359809522012-07-11T15:12:00.000-04:002012-07-19T15:09:45.615-04:00A digression: publishing a book
For a number of years I've been shopping a book-length work of fiction, The Annunciation of Jack, to publishers (very few since most don't take on unsolicited queries) and agents. I've got a smidgen of positive feedback, but mostly boilerplate "Dear John" letters telling me that they would not publish/represent me.
Every summer, when I have a little time to breathe from teaching, I'll send outDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-67028017076684016682012-05-11T12:41:00.001-04:002012-05-11T12:49:00.489-04:00Leading the masses into virtual worlds
On 5 April 2012, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Chris Robinson (Georgia Gwinnett College, SL: Grizzla Pixelmaid) at the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable for their once-a-month voice event. I originally had some concerns about being able to fill an hour talking about my work in Second Life, but apparently I'm more longwinded that I picture myself! We talked about how I came to Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-62079368066766633252012-02-26T17:44:00.000-05:002012-02-26T17:44:06.761-05:00When does an online class start?Over fifteen years ago, while designing the very first online composition course for Lansing Community College, I recall discussing with other faculty working on their first courses to start in Fall 1997 the question of when online classes start.
Today, it seems obvious--when the semester starts. But even so, not such a simple answer. F2f classes have clear, weekly schedules. This section meets Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-26534652902737353332011-11-22T17:40:00.001-05:002011-12-31T14:17:48.393-05:00One-on-one conferencesA couple of weeks ago, I had one-on-one conferences with my students in the Writing the Novel class, where we met individually and discussed their proposals for chapter 3 of their novels. The week prior, students signed up for a ten minute period to meet with me, in lieu of coming to class.
Now of course, one-on-one conferences are nothing new, hardly worth a blog post. Writing faculty all over Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-86435496209795788302011-11-01T21:07:00.000-04:002011-11-01T21:07:11.738-04:00Another semester begins
Composition I chat
Well, starting this post on October 1st (and adding pictures on November 1st), I can't quite say that. But it's the beginning for this blog!
This semester has been a whirlwind. All four sections that I'm teaching this semester are online and using Second Life. Creative Writing I and Writing the Novel meet as a whole class weekly. Two sections of Composition I Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-19860692773762490012011-05-30T14:15:00.000-04:002012-02-06T18:25:52.045-05:00Pixels or paper?The semester has ended with most of my students improving their writing and succeeding in receiving a satisfactory grade (many with very good grades).
But there were three events from the end of the semester (and a day beyond) that I wanted to share before slipping into summer.
1. Week 14, composition students were revising for their portfolio to be submitted for external assessment. During Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-57416909448603542852011-04-03T15:02:00.013-04:002012-02-06T18:20:43.752-05:00Bugs galore
Classes are going smoothly. My creative writing class meets weekly on Angel Learning Isle, and they all have mastered the basics of SL so that chatting, text and voice, watching web pages/assignments on the shared media board, and even getting into groups, teleporting to a sky platform and working together, reading drafts, planning an SL excursion to a writerly event, or jotting down notes Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-4466170246497749822011-03-12T11:00:00.001-05:002011-03-12T20:43:58.897-05:00Testing BlogPressOne of the things I want to be able to do is to be able to write blog posts on my iPad. However Google's iPad app doesn't play well with Safari. So I'm trying out BlogPress. I'm sure it works better with Android tablets!Which may be in my future. Don't get me wrong--the iPad is great. But I would much rather have Chrome as my browser. And really--not having flash is a problem. Too often I come Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-61585047742265041962011-03-07T10:33:00.008-05:002012-02-06T18:21:25.819-05:00Orientation 2.0Spring break gives me a bit of time to raise my head and reflect a bit. I've started a couple different blog posts the last few months, but abandoned as work, holidays, freezing temperatures and snow, a Criterion half-off sale, you name it, kept me away from finishing.
Spring semester began with some changes that helped stave off a mass exodus from my classes using Second Life. As you may Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-51230349124794660812010-09-30T14:45:00.014-04:002010-10-05T18:39:39.522-04:00Media Share on a PrimA lot has been written in the last several months about the new SL viewer, particularly nashing of teeth by old timers who detest all of the changes.Some of the whining is understandable. There are some tasks that take more key strokes than used to be so. But as an Angel user, I'm used to the philosophy of why use one keystroke when three will do.I've not found the new viewerDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-15521421320260231502010-09-20T18:32:00.007-04:002010-09-26T15:23:59.010-04:00The power of placenessI was invited to submit a guest blog post at the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable website, which was published today. Some of what I discuss will already be familiar to those reading this blog, but clearly not all.Just click on the screen shot to read.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-64844565139038705052010-08-28T17:51:00.011-04:002010-08-31T16:36:13.211-04:00Crossing over to the dark sideSchool has started. What happened to the summer?!!!!!So, besides balancing three storeys upon an aluminum ladder to scrape and paint the west side of my house, I spent some time exploring a couple of other MUVEs, Blue Mars and Friendshangout. I had tried Blue Mars last fall but could never get in with my old laptop. However, I got a new laptop from LCC this summer Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-75065199148569096952010-07-07T11:13:00.016-04:002010-07-23T16:03:01.901-04:00Roger and MeA couple weeks ago (to be precise, on 6/17), Roger Ebert tweeted the following: "Find me a person who would value any video game above 'Huckleberry Finn,' and I'll show you a fool." As you can imagine, gamers lit Twitter, his blog, and their own with a wildfire of responses (one of his blog postings had over 4000 comments!). And then finally, Ebert relented, admitting that he Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593817.post-31115522672670341752010-06-10T10:18:00.008-04:002010-06-11T15:15:04.818-04:00Dog Days of Summer?Although it's only early June, the brouhaha over Linden Lab and their downsizing makes it sound like we're in the throes of a miserable heat wave. All over Twitter and the SLED list, proclamations of the demise of Second Life are being proclaimed because LL has cut their work force by 30%, including the disbanding of the Singapore office, and most disturbing for educators, the Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07392890976174062744noreply@blogger.com2